Extreme Metal
Extreme Metal is a 2D fighting game for the Nintendo Switch with a cast of 12 characters. It is a spiritual successor to Gas Psychokinetics, featuring one of its characters as a main character, but it takes place in another continuity and the gameplay differs in many ways. In Extreme Metal, players can play as a variety of female bounty hunters (for the most part), each with different playstyles, special moves and attributes. There are two main modes; a 1 vs 1 fighting mode, and a story mode that plays similar to a Beat 'em up game with fighting game controls. While the game has 3D graphics, it is played in 2D, making it a 2.5D game. Gameplay In Extreme Metal, every character has a health bar which can be depleted by other characters. They can move left or right, and are also able to jump. More importantly, however, players can perform three types of punches and three types of kicks. By default, the X and A buttons are "punch" buttons, while the Y and B buttons are "kick" buttons. Pressing A while on land will make a player's character perform a "Quick Punch", which is fast but weak, while pressing X will make the character do a "Strong Punch" which is stronger, but slower and therefore easier to punish. Similarly, pressing B will make a "Quick Kick" and pressing Y will make a "Strong Kick". These moves behave differently if the player is in the air, though; pressing X or A will make the character perform an "Aerial Punch", while pressing Y and B will make them use an "Aerial Kick". Some characters cannot perform kicks due to their unorthodox bodies, but they will perform an action with a similar effect instead. All playable characters also share three "Power Moves", which require joystick or control pad imputs to execute. For clarity, every imput move described on this page assumes the character is currently facing the right direction; if the character is facing the opposite direction, left and right imputs will be reversed. Hyper Punch is an even stronger variant of Strong Punch that has more startup and endlag, but that deals high damage. It is performed by pressing Left, Right and then the Strong Punch button while on the ground. Hyper Punch is mainly supposed to be used as a combo finisher or as a "punish". Uppercut, meanwhile, allows grounded characters to hit characters that are in the air. It is performed by pressing Right, Up and then Strong Punch. Finally, Low Sweep is a kicking move that doesn't just deals damage, but also knocks foe off their feet, forcing them to recover and potentially leaving them vulnerable to a strong attack or a combo. However, it is easy to dodge. It is performed by pressing Right, Down, Right and then Strong Kick. Like the other Power Moves, it cannot be used while in the air. All playable characters also have 4 "Special Moves" which are executed similar to Power Moves. Unlike them, however, they are not shared between characters. Special Moves are what define each character's overall playstyle and tend to be their most useful moves. Over time, by making successful combos or by taking damage, a "Boost Meter" will fill up. By pressing the shoulder buttons, players can choose to "release" the Boost Meter into one of 4 boosts; Power Boost, Guard Boost, Speed Boost and Regen Boost. These boosts give a character a buff, but will also give them a less noticeable debuff. *Power Boost will increase the damage a character deals. However, it slightly increases startup and endlag. Activated by pressing L. *Guard Boost will lower the damage a character takes, at the cost of making them move slower and jump less high. Activated by pressing ZL. *Speed Boost will increase a character's move speed and will also slightly lower startup and endlag, but it increases the amount of damage they take. Activated by pressing R. *Finally, Regen Boost will give a character passive regeneration for a short time, although it also lowers the amount of damage they deal. Activated by pressing ZR. Experienced players should analyze each matchup and situations in order to use the appropriate boost for these situations. If used correctly, a boost can allow characters to do impressive comebacks; conversely, it can finish off a foe in a vulnerable state. Duel Mode Duel Mode is the main mode of the game. In Duel Mode, one player faces off against either another player or a CPU-controlled character. They automatically face eachother and fight in generally "endless" arenas. Players can pick which arena they want to go to after selecting their character, although there are no differences between each stages besides appearance. The goal is to bring the other character's health to 0 before the player's own health is depleted to 0. Players can alter settings for the mode, as well; parameters include the ability to set a timeout and to add multiple "rounds" to the battle; by default, a timeout happens after two minutes and there are three rounds (although the duel can end early if a character wins two rounds before the last rounds). Lorewise, the Duel Mode is explained as "training sessions" between the bounty hunters. In said training sessions, the bounty hunters are testing out their skills against eachother before going on bounty hunts. If the same character is picked twice, the "Player 2" will take on an alternate color scheme in order to avoid confusion. Tournament Mode Tournament Mode is a spin on Duel Mode in which up to 24 (20 if the unlockable characters are not unlocked) players can select a character (although a single character can only be picked twice). The game will then automatically generate a bracket, which the player can edit at will. Players can also edit the settings of the battle. After a player loses a battle, they are eliminated. At the end, only a player will remain; they will be declared the winner. Challenge Mode Challenge Mode is a single-player mode in which the player fights a series of 5 to 10 (the number of characters fought is chosen by the player) randomly-chosen characters, each controlled by an AI. The AI gets smarter and harder to beat as the player progresses through the mode. No reward is given for beating the mode, but it does allow players to train and to have a more traditional single-player campaign compared to the Story mode. Training Mode Training Mode is a helpful mode for beginners that not only lets a player train against an AI-controlled dummy, but that also includes tutorials, both for general techniques and character-specific techniques. Guides includes: *An overview of the basic controls (movement + punches and kicks) *An overview of Power Moves *An overview of the Boost Meter and the boosts it gives *An overview of each character and their Special Moves *A compilation of various useful combos found for each character Additionally, Training Mode includes various training-friendly features accessed from a menu, including the ability to instantly fill out the Boost Meter, the ability to swap out the AI dummy for an AI-controlled character, and the ability to toggle a combo tracker. Story Mode Gameplay in Extreme Metal's story mode is inspired by classic Beat 'em up games and Super Smash Bros. Brawl's Subspace Emissary. Players travel through simple 2D stages with some minor platforming at best, often entering sections where they must fight swarms of relatively weak foes to proceed, although occasionally minibosses will be fought mid-stage that are harder to beat than regular enemies. Of course, most stages also end with a threatening boss to face. These stages are tied together by a plot involving all 12 characters and some cutscenes. For details on the Story Mode's cutscenes, click this link! Stages Enemies Bosses Characters The game has 12 characters, two of which need to be unlocked. Every character has its own stats, special move and playstyle. Arenas The only differences between each arenas are their appearance. They all have flat terrain, with no obstacles hindering the players, allowing them to fight with no interruptions. Arenas "loop", making trapping strategies impractical. However, there is a certain limit to how much you can stretch the view before the arena's borders lock, and said borders will also show up if the game detects a player trying to stall by fleeing. Gallery LacyrZightEMAlt.png|Lacyr Zight's "Player 2" alternate colors. GladiarEgogeEMAlt.png|Gladiar Egoge's "Player 2" alternate colors. BrandalleScimiliEMAlt.png|Brandalle Scimili's "Player 2" alternate colors. RoxyNanoloyEMAlt.png|Roxy Nanoloy's "Player 2" alternate colors. platiNUMEMAlt.png|platiNUM's "Player 2" alternate colors. CallieBurnianEMAlt.png|Callie Burnian's "Player 2" alternate colors. EchgeeEMAlt.png|Echgee's "Player 2" alternate colors. MettoArcaxeEMAlt.png|Metto Arcaxe's "Player 2" alternate colors. BymsoLuxabaEMAlt.png|Bymso Luxaba's "Player 2" alternate colors. MoxyNanoloyEMAlt.png|Moxy Nanoloy's "Player 2" alternate colors. Fe-26EMAlt.png|Fe-26's "Player 2" alternate colors. HazmareEMAlt.png|Hazmare's "Player 2" alternate colors. Polls Which playable character is your favorite? Lacyr Zight (Lithium) Gladiar Egoge (Gold) Brandalle Scimili (Silver) Roxy Nanoloy (Bronze) platiNUM (Platinum) Callie Burnian (Titanium) Echgee (Mercury) Metto Arcaxe (Cobalt) Bymso Luxaba (Palladium) Moxy Nanoloy (Magnesium) Fe-26 (Iron) Hazmare (Radium) What should be focused on next? Enemies Bosses Arenas Trivia *'Extreme Metal' is named after the music genre. The name was chosen because it sounded cool, yet cheezy, much like other fighting games like Mortal Kombat. It also fit with the naming conventions of the characters, what with each character having the name of a metal as a codename. *Lacyr Zight's codename in Gas Psychokinetics was Copper. It was changed to Lithium in Extreme Metal as it being the lightest metal fit more with Lacyr than Copper (which was chosen because it had a vaguely red tint). *Brandalle Scimili's Grind Rush attack was based on the "Mecha Sonic" boss from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. *Roxy Nanoloy is the only character whose codename is an alloy. *platiNUM emits a variety of beeps while fighting. These beeps actually come from Joy Mech Fight, a Famicon game never released outside Japan whose character designs are similar to platiNUM. It's design was effectively inspired by the robots from those games. *Echgee was originally going to surround her bases with spikes as a replacement for kicking instead of using her staff. *Bymso originally had long blond hair and was going to be right-handed instead of left-handed. This was changed in order to make her look less like Zero. *Fe-26's design was inspired by the animatronics from Several Nights at Fierce's 3, one of Poisonshot's previous projects. *Fe-26 is the only playable character that identifies as male, although whether or not he counts is debatable because he is a robot. *Hazmare was originally going to be a zoner who used projectiles to weaken enemies while boosting herself, but the "Puppeteer" playstyle was judged to be a more fun and unique addition to the roster. Category:Games Category:Fighting Games Category:2.5D Games Category:Poisonshot Category:Original Games Category:Nintendo Switch Games